Lessons · Pharmacy · refills and the last fill date
Refills, and when the next one is due
The refills written on a script are the fills AFTER the first one, and the days' supply added to the fill date gives the earliest the next one is due.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Refills: 2 on the script and three bottles over the counter is the ordinary case, and getting it wrong by one is how a patient is given a fill that was never authorised. The date half of it is what the plan uses to decide whether a refill is too soon.
How to think about it
Total fills is refills plus one. Total days of therapy is total fills times the days' supply of one fill. The next fill is due on the fill date plus the days' supply.
Worked example
Disp 28, refills 2 = 3 fills in allThe original plus two. Refills are the ones after the first.
28 tablets at 1 tab bid = 14 days per fillHow long one fill lasts.
3 fills x 14 days = 42 days of therapyThe whole script, start to finish.
Filled 4 March with a 14 day supply: the next is due 18 MarchAdd the days' supply to the fill date.
Your turn
A script says Disp 30, refills 3. Write the total number of fills.
1 + 3 = fills
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Counting the refills as the total. Refills: 0 still means one fill, and Refills: 5 means six bottles, not five.